Some new-old books

Last week I wrote about getting some Japanese Temari books. Well now that the excitement of Mother's day and our school excursion to Kings Park is over I have time to actually blog about them.

Three of the books are quite old but they are all in mint condition. It is so lovely to have them in my collection.



The Gotenmari Photo Collection ISBN 4795203628

This book was printed in 1997 and is written in Japanese and English. It is such a treat to have in my collection. Miho visited us on Sunday for Mothers Day lunch and told me that the novel which inspired the temari designs in the first chapter of this book was the one her Mum wrote a thesis on during her university studies. The novel is called The Tale of Genji and is said to be the oldest Japanese novel. (I wonder if it has ever been translated into English.) This book has no patterns but it is a really beautiful book.

Furursato no Temari ISBN 7509000032012

This book was printed in 1990 and shows examples of styles of temari from all the various locations throughout Japan. I really like seeing the different styles from all over Japan. There are no patterns in this one but many of the almost 400 designs are similar to designs in newer books. There are a lot of temari I'd like to reverse engineer in this book.



Dentou no Temari ISBN 03000090303061

This book is by far the oldest (almost antique - just joking) being printed in 1973. This one has lots of patterns in the back with step by step pictures. Miho laughed as she showed me a picture and asked Do you know what I see? It was a 35mm film canister that was suggested to be used for holding a noisemaker in the center of the temari base... we both laughed... now the old film canister is a definite relic since digital camera age. Having this book is so fun to show how things have changed... but some still stayed the same over the last 40 years. I really love the design on the cover of this book.

This brings me to my last book, which is actually a new, new book. This one was released late last year and as my book supplier in Japan doesn't carry this one, I had too buy it from Amazon.jp.  I already planned the other three books and this one was just an extra thought seeing as Shirley had asked about it too.

Sanuki Temari ISBN 9784140311738

I know this book got some mixed reviews in Temari circles, but I really like it. Because the threads used are made by the Author (so far as I can tell) and are all coloured with natural dyes, the temari have a real earthy subtlety to them. There is only 1 design that uses metallic thread (my own personal crutch) and this makes the designs speak in more quiet, reverent tones. This book so inspired Miho that she wants to try to find uncoloured thread so we can try to tint it ourselves. I love the coloured step by step images in the pattern pages (a godsend for someone like me who tends to look blankly at a diagram and think... Huh??) This book also shows C6 designs. I believe that there is some contention about whether this is actually a valid/recognised division, but I have heard it talked about and wanted to try it forever but couldn't remember if or where I had seen instructions about marking it. Also this book shows making the base using  paper (it looks like some type of tissue paper) to contain the rice hulls and I can't see any yarn layer.
To sum up I do really like this book and can see myself having hours of stitching fun with it.

The Library

I love ordering books at the library. I always want to preview them before I commit to buying... nothing worse than being disappointed by your purchase (I have only purchased one temari book I didn't truly love... I'll not speak of it but you can go through my old posts if you want to know which one it is). I currently have about 5 or 6 books on order from other libraries around the state.

Today I received an email to notify me that the first of the 5 books I ordered to help me with my TC flower temari had arrived. I gathered all my bits and headed out the door. When I got to the garage I noticed the ash that has been blowing in from the fires around Perth. No wonder my nose and lungs are so cranky today, and my dogs so unhappy too, they just hate fires.

The other car was worse but of course being silver you couldn't see it in a photo. So off I headed down to the library and I also went to the bank, and grocery store for a bottle of honey and some cough drops for Mr Sickie (aka DH).

On the way home there was another fire alert on the radio. Sixty three homes are now guttered and another 34 have been damaged. The bureau of meteorology says that the winds we are experiencing are due to Ex Tropical Cyclone Yasi which has travelled all the way from Northern Queensland, through the Northern Territory and South Australia before entering Western Australia. They're not gale force winds but the air has heated up by crossing the desert which makes a very warm Easterly wind.  I made this map of the fire zones. Still thankfully no lives have been lost. Already this year there have been other large fires near Herne Hill and South of Mandurah. We can often hear the drone of water bombing planes throughout the day. The wind seems to have changed direction as we can smell less smoke this afternoon.

When I got home I sat down to check out the book which is really nice but maybe not so helpful for what I wanted. Here is the cover image.  It is applique after all and now my ideas are changing about what subjects to use for my project.

ISBN 9781863514118

There are some stunning waterlilies and irises in this book. More to ponder over the coming days....

Japanese Temari Book Review Resources

Barb Suess has been reorganising her bookshelves and supplies, and has kindly consolidated all her resources for anyone interested in information about Japanese temari books into a single downloadable file. Here is a link to the PDF file on her website. There are 7 pages of book reviews which include each book's cover images, also a listing by ISBN and another by title. There is even a convenient book label page so you can print it on sticky paper and stick the title in English on the spine of your book.

Ginny at Temarikai also has a listing of book reviews here, it is spread over a few pages and the link will take you to the first of three pages... you can click the other pages from there.

Check out both of these excellent resources, you'll gain a valuable insight into which book(s) are right for you. When you decide which book(s) you want visit our store to purchase them at very reasonable prices... better than ebay. I've got a huge (more than 20kgs) order of books making their way from Japan, and we will be expanding the range of books we carry... keep an eye out at our supply store.

Free temari patterns and cool books you can buy

OK so you've discovered temari making and your mind is agog with potential, but you can't lay your hands on any books today so where do you go for a starter project or two?  So here is a little list of places to visit for some free temari patterns.  Don't we all love that word?! Free!!

Japanese Temari by Barb Suess (you can also order a great book written by Barb).
Temari Kai you need to click through to the pattern pages.  There are a variety of submitted patterns from many members ranging from beginner to advanced.
Math Info by Debi Abolt. There are many pages of patterns and very useful investigations about all things temari related.  Debi also has an awesome blog where she has been sharing her Yubinuki pattern studies.
Kathleen Hewitt's web pages have several free patterns to try.
WikiHow on this page you will find how to construct the base ball with a inserted bell.  Instead of using batting, I use a layer of wool wrapped in the same manner as the thread layer shown in the tutorial.

There are also some really great Yahoo groups to join:
Temari Challenge
Talk Temari
Thimble Rings

So until you can get your own copy of at least one of the great temari books available you've got some links to patterns to get you going toward your new addiction.  Our store sells many of the Japanese language books.  Click the supply store link  in the left column to see what's available.

Temari Supply Store Update.

Rayon Temari Threads.

We are excited to announce that we have been able to source Rayon temari thread directly from the supplier in Japan.  We love stitching with this thread and find it is a perfect size for using with Nordic Gold by Rainbow gallery.  Together they produce stunning temari balls that are as lovely to hold as they are to look at.  As far as we can tell no one else sells this in Australia... we looked pretty hard for it and sheer desperation has meant we found it for ourselves.  There is a colour chart on the store site.

We still get our Nordic Gold directly from the US and this allows us to competitvely price it (actually it is cheaper than any thread shop I have seen in Australia and we have the whole colour range - not just gold and silver). There is a colour chart on the store site.

Cosmo Books for Sale.

We are also proud to announce that we now stock the Cosmo series 1-7 which comes directly from Japan. This means we can sell it at a better price for you and you don't have to fork out for the expensive EMS postage.  Our price is cheaper than any price listed currently on ebay for these books.
We may be able to offer other books in the future email us the ISBN of Japanese temari books you are interested in and we will be glad to investigate this for you.

Interested in looking at our supply store?  Just click on the supply store button to the left of our posts.

Japanese & English Temari Books in My Stash

When I venture into any new craft I do it "big". Whether it be stamping, card making, sewing, scrap booking, lead lighting, quilting or beading; I need to know everything and buy all the stuff to do it- call it a compulsion - and temari is no different. Here is a visual list of the Japanese and English Language temari books I have acquired. There are several I have purchased that are still making their way to my mail box, but all the images here are books I have on hand. (as others arrive I will add them to this list). Note that they are all numbered and at the end of this post you will find the ISBN and title.

Japanese Language Temari Books.

1 2

One of my students purchased these 2 books on a visit to Kyoto recently and was kind enough to leave them with me for a look. What can I say, I know I won't be able to part with them so I have purchased copies of my own. These were purchased on amazon.co.jp.

3 4

5

These were my first Japanese texts and were purchased together from ebay. As most things sent from Japan are shipped via EMS it is cost effective to purchase several books at once (the postage is usually about 50% on top of the purchase price. The ebay price on Japanese texts is far in excess of the shelf price - but this is the price you pay for purchasing in English.

 6 7

8

These three came from Amazon.jp, international postage with these guys is quite expensive as they use FedEx (twice the cost of one of these books) but adding extra books is really cheap. (About JPY300 per additional book) So of course these were purchased together... I did order Cosmo #7 but they couldn't source it. See below where I eventually found it.

9 10

11

Cosmo book (number7) which is on its' way from Ai's shop. The other two came from Amazon.jp. Book #11 was purchased after I saw a pattern on a web page that showed the scanned page from the book - sometimes sharing a page on the internet does add to the artists income rather than detract from it.

12 13

Book #12 was from Amazon.jp and #13 was, believe it or not, second hand from Etsy -but was really brand new and it was soooooo cheap too (in comparison with ebay). Yes it is a little pamphlet sized book - and not worth the price on it gets listed for on ebay - but still a lovely thing to have.

14 15

Books #14 and #15 are on their way from Ai's store. They are both second hand and #15 is the purple Olympus book and #14 was only JPY400 so I got that too - it is a nice basic little book that seems to be sponsored by Olympus Thread.

English Language Temari Books.

16 17

Both purchased from Fishpond.com, but I later discovered that I could have purchased a signed copy #16 directly from Barb's Site.

18 19

20

These 3 were purchased separately from Amazon.com. Something I will not do again - the postage almost crippled me as they came from different sellers.

21 22

23

These 3 books were purchased directly from the Authors own website: temari.com.

24

This one was picked up second hand on Etsy. It was too cheap to refuse it and the postal rate was amazingly cheap too.

1 ISBN4837707904 Shiki no Temari Kagari / Temari for Four Seasons Vol. 1.

2 ISBN4837706908 Temari Junikagatsu / Temari for Twelve Months, Vol.1.

3 ISBN4837702791 Yasashii Temari / Easy Temari, aka Cosmo Book 1.

4 ISBN4837702805 Sousaku Temari / CreativeTemari, aka Cosmo Book 2.

5 ISBN4837702813 Atarashi Temari 3 / New Temari, aka Cosmo Book 3.

6 ISBN4837702821 Atarashi Temari 4 / New Temari, aka Cosmo Book 4.

7 ISBN483770283X Atarashi Temari 5 / New Temari, aka Cosmo Book 5.

8 ISBN483770784X Atarashi Temari 6 / New Temari, aka Cosmo Book 6.

9 ISBN48377008854 Atarashi Temari 7 / New Temari, aka Cosmo Book 7.

10 ISBN4837704867 Watashi no Temari Nyumon / My Temari, Beginner's Course.

11 ISBN483770199X Yume Temari / Dream Temari, Classic to Modern.

12 ISBN9784837703082 Yubinuki to Hana temari / Thimble Ring and Flower Temari.

13 ISBN427749045X Hajemete Tsukuru Temari / Creating First Temari.

14 ISBN ?? 67577-30 Handcraft Series #30 Temari.

15 ISBN45290027821 Utsukushi Temari / Beautiful Temari - aka Olympus Purple.

16 ISBN9781933308128 Japanese Temari: A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft.

17 ISBN9781844483990 The Simple Art of Japanese Temari.

18 ISBN0855326530 The Craft of Temari.

19 ISBN1579902251 The Temari Book.

20 ISBN1861080808 Temari: A Traditional Japanese Embroidery Technique.

21 ISBN0870409832 Temari Treasures.

22 ISBN0870409492 Temari Traditions.

23 ISBN9780971658714 Temari Gifts.

24 ISBN4889960384 Temari Adventures.

Japanese Cosmo books

I got my first 3 Cosmo books on Friday.

Oh My GOODNESS... they are lovely!!! I can't decide what I want to do first. I have been working on a translation sheet for English - Japanese to help with interpreting the patterns and also got a copy of Barb Suess' Translation Cheat Sheet which she kindly had posted on the Temari Challenge group. I have decided a mixture of both will be what I end up referring to but it will take a little more work. I highly recommend looking on eBay for listings of the Cosmo books as they usually have sample pages displayed. I can't quite decide what the 'It' factor is that Japanese temari have but what ever it is I want to work it out for use on my own temari.

The remaining 4 Cosmo books will take about another month to come from Amazon.jp - which is a good thing because I have plenty to keep me busy until then...

I can't wait to share my new books next week with the girls.

First Big Temari

I recently purchased the instructions for this temari from Barb's site. I believe it is very reasonably priced given the wealth of information that comes in the file. When I read through the file I was amazed the mari was so big (42cm Circ). It worried me a little so I put this aside for a while but decided to start this week.

The largest temari I usually make is hand sized (approx 25-27 cm Circ) so I found this one quite a challenge to wrap and due to its' weight (even with a Styro core) when it popped out of my hands it really raced across the floor. It took less time than I expected to make and I was surprised how quickly it got wrapped and marked. If you can't understand how to do a C10 project I can recommend you try this. The instructions are really clear and there are plenty of references to the shape of the faces you should be seeing on the ball. I can't tell you what was louder, the rain outside or the sound of all the pennys dropping.

I needed to give myself time off from stitching during this project (with deep heat on my right arm - I am a temari addict but couldn't stitch through the pain) but I really like how it turned out.

My poor husband suggested perhaps this is one to say goodbye to - not sure if it is the pink colours or the fact it is so big and there is no place to put it in our house. He was a little perturbed by the sight of the next one getting wrapped when he woke this morning.

The second one pictured below is in purples maybe I will make a third in either the suggested colours or maybe in reds and oranges.

In other news..... I have purchased the Japanese Language Cosmo books 1, 2 and 3 from Ebay. These should arrive just in time to be a birthday prezzie to myself. Yay!! Also I got a great deal on Amazon.jp for the Cosmo books 4, 5, 6, and 7. They should be here a few weeks later as they were quoted to ship in 2-4 weeks.
Rebecca

Review of New Temari Book and Recommendations

I am always curious about books on Temari and today I received my latest installment.
The book pictured below. I would not recommend this book too highly as it only has 10 patterns which are then varied in size, colour etc. It seems to have been written by some chaps that have read several books about temari but aren't actually temari artists themselves. In addition some of the terms used are not standard 'temari' language and in my honest opinion I would rather have not spent the money on it.

This may seem a little harsh but in terms of value for money every other temari book I own was better. In defence of this book it did show scope for practical applications for putting the temari to use... but it also included a good deal of bead work on the projects... I guess this is where the contemporary part of the title fits in. Avoid the above book but please try these books written by the authors listed below as they are far more inspiring.

Barb Suess, Diana Vandervoort, and Mary Wood (click the links here to go to their websites to purchase books)

In particular Barb's book is the easiest to learn from as it is written in the most easy to comprehend manner and is accompanied by excellent diagrams. Diana's books (she has written several) have a fairly broad scope and are loaded with directions. Mary's book shows techniques rather than exact patterns - you learn the technique and use your imagination to make your own patterns so whilst this is informative I wouldn't expect most people to learn from scratch with this one.

If I had to choose one and only one it would be Barb's book! She holds your hand through every design step and guides you along with tips from start to finish.

I have no commercial agreement with any author listed here in this post and these are my own opinions based on my experience with the books mentioned. I do own copies of all the books reviewed.

I own almost every book published in English (on Temari that is) and soon I will start collecting Japanese ones (please Finance Gods let the AUD rise against the Yen!!!!) I already have a list as long as my arm and just have to wait for the right time to buy....

Inspirations Magazine Article - Barb Suess

Our favorite temari author, Barb Suess, has an amazing article in the current issue of Inspirations Magazine (Issue 62 April 2009). If you have purchased this magazine, and arrived here at our blog, welcome to a whole new world of stitching.

Check out our blog for links to places to buy temari essentials in Perth... if you live elsewhere (in our big land down under) I can probably put you in touch with resources in your area.

Also for Perth folk come and join us to stitch temari. Just send an email for more details. We all get together weekly to discuss temari and work on new projects.

Till next time... off and stitching...

最近のお気に入りMy favourite design by MIHO

なかなか気に入った！！という毬が作れません。
まだまだ修行が足りないですね。

でも、最近ちょっと好きだな、と思う毬ができたので、
写真アップしてみます。
C8でバーバラの本から、DogWoodのパターンを応用しました。
地が緑で星がちりばめられているので、なんだかクリスマスの
デコレーションのよう。

ちなみにDogWoodは日本語でハナミズキ、ですね。

I have learned to do C8 using Barb Seuss' book. I am addicted to making the C8 division balls. The dogwood pattern is my inspiration for this ball. I also used kiku style stars on the poles. I like brighter colours so I chose a selection from my stash, it looks like a christmas decoration. Dogwood is the English translation for Hanamizuki which is a pale pink or white coloured flower.

A gift for Amelia

This temari has been made by Rebecca for our friend's new baby. It has a foam core which was split in half and hollowed out then filled with bells, a coin and a note.

The bells are for joy. The money is for prosperity.

The notepaper has Amelia's name written on it and a wish for her good health, happiness and longevity throughout her life.

The temari was wrapped in 3 pinks and then divided into

S16 in silver.

The stitching is done in 3 shades of pinks and purple. The obi is made of 12 wraps in 3 colours then overstitched with the net design.

While I stitched the design I filled my mind with the good wishes written on the note paper. I really think it turned out beautifully.

The pattern is based on two projects from Barb Suess's book.

1st picture on our blog

Wow, our first picture on the Temari Addict Australia Blog. These temari were made by Rebecca and were inspired by a lovely pattern in Barb Seuss' book Japanese Temari, A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft. I made the first one (the lowest one in the vase) and was so pleased with it I got a little carried away and have made 7 so far....

I loaned the book from my local library, but you should find it at any good bookstore. Actually, I was so sad to give the book back to the library, I went straight out to buy my own copy. I recommend you do the same, especially if you are starting out. It is a great resource, written very simply and includes great artwork.

I can also recommend that you have a visit to Barb's site: http://www.japanesetemari.com There is plenty to drool over and there a several free patterns to try. Barb also sells patterns not featured in her book and offers on line classes. I have signed up for a Echo Star Class starting in April 2009, I think she runs several per year ranging from beginner to more advanced temari.